After spending nearly $2 billion dollar in court hearings, fines and patents, Apple has finally decided to end the patent war against Google, Android and other OEMs. Apple had formed a patent consortium — Rockstar — with Microsoft and other major companies like Sony and Microsoft in 2011. 

The company had spent nearly $4.5 billion to acquire old patents from Nortel, and has since then used the consortium to continuously file patent lawsuits against Google and other Android OEMs.

Rockstar has already filed a motion to stay a series of lawsuits against Google. The parties of the lawsuit will again meet on December 29th where they will file a “joint statement including a status report.” According to IAM Magazine, Apple is apparently working towards completely shutting down Rockstar.

Apparently, Google’s settlement with Cisco earlier for $188 million was a part of this, as it has apparently allowed the existing litigations to come to an end quickly, which will allow Apple and other OEMs backing the consortium to shut it down quickly.

With a number of the consortium unsure of their continued involvement, the IAM blog also understands that Rockstar’s management has attempted a well-funded buyout. However, this was rejected by some of the shareholders who were keen not to be seen to be profiting from an NPE.

The shutting down of patent troll Rockstar will ultimately be for the good of the industry and allow innovation to thrive once again.